negotiations with nancy cordes on capitol hill and major garrett at the white house. the meningitis outbreak worsens. dr. jon lapook tells us patients whose lives were saved are now getting new infections. and we'll take you to kenya where m. sanjayan shows us the drastic action they're taking to save the elephants. >> it's the worst that it's been in the last 20 years. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. american shoppers are the driving force of our economy and they are in a spending mood. the latest numbers show that 247 million went holiday shopping over the weekend and spent more than $59 billion. morsi

28 football fields. last cyber monday-- its busiest day of the year-- amazon processed 200 orders per second. amazon vice president craig berman says the company expects business this year will be even better. >> we've hired and are continuing to hire 50,000 seasonal workers to meet customer demand. >> reporter: that's in addition to amazon's 20,000 full time workers like packing manager mark pulley. >> we need to come up with a new word for busy. we've been on hyperdrive. >> reporter: across the country, online sales account for 10% of holiday purchases, says ellen davis with the national retail federation.

>> the share of sales happening online is still fairly low. however, the internet influences now about 50% of what consumers buy. >> reporter: because shoppers look for sales and compare prices online before they buy. and that stretches over the whole holiday season. online sales jump more than 20% on black friday. and thanksgiving was a shopping day this year. >> yeah, it started early. >> reporter: jill poleri, a retail analyst with i.b.m., which monitors 500 online retailers, says shopping was heavy throughout thanksgiving day, especially with iphones and ipads. people were even buying during the traditional thanksgiving dinner time? >> sad but true. we didn't see a lull, right? so i'm saying the iphone is now the new utensil. does it go on the right or the left of the fork, i don't know. >> reporter: if you think thanksgiving should be sacrosanct, remember this: in 1941 the holiday was pushed up a week after the head of fed rated

department stores appealed to president roosevelt to move thanksgiving to extend the holiday shopping season. >> pelley: thanks, anthony. the white house warned today there could be one thing that would get americans to slow their spending, that is the tax increase that is coming five weeks from tonight. we asked our research department to add it all up for us. for a household earning $20,000 to $40,000 it would mean a tax increase of $1,200. an income of $40,000 to $64,000 would see an increase of $2,000 and an income of $64,000 to $109,000, would see an increase of $3,500. again, that will happen at the first of the year unless the president and congress agree on another way to fix the federal budget. what are the prospects of that? congressional correspondent nancy cordes is on capitol hill for us tonight. nancy? >> reporter: scott, both parties returned to capitol hill from thanksgiving loudly proclaiming

their willingness to compromise but refusing to back it up with much specifics. top senate aides tell me that's because these negotiations are really taking place between just two people: house speaker john boehner and the president. boehner and the president spoke by phone on saturday, agreeing not to share details. but senate republican leader mitch mcconnell said today the g.o.p. wants the president to make the first move and issue a proposal to raise tax revenue and cut spending. >> this he's the only one who can lead his party to do something they wouldn't ordinarily do. to do what's actually needed now. >> reporter: prominent republicans are signaling they're now flexible on increasing tax revenue, with a few in the house and senate distancing themselves from that no tax increase pledge that many of them signed, a pledge created by lobbyist grover norquist. house majority leader eric cantor, senator lindsey graham of south carolina and senator saxby chambliss of georgia all said there could be an increase

in tax revenue if democrats agreed to controlling the cost of medicare and medicaid. >> there's a right way to do this and there's a wrong way to do it. but at the end of the day, nancy what's got to happen is whoever's right or wrong here we've got to get the economy going again. >> reporter: chambliss and virginia democrat mark warner head up the senate's gang of eight-- four democrats and four remembers who have worked for two and a half years to find a bipartisan approach to debt reduction. do you think your democratic colleagues are going to be willing to entertain discussion of social security reform, medicare reform as part of this deal? >> listen, i think anyone that looks at our entitlements, medicare, social security, other programs, they're great programs. but the math just doesn't work anymore. not because the programs are bad but because thank goodness we're living a lot longer than we were when these programs were established. >> reporter: republicans may be more open now to raising tax

revenue, but that doesn't mean they support raising tax rates for the wealthy. they support instead, scott, limiting tax deductions for the rich. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. let's run to the other end of pennsylvania avenue where we find chief white house correspondent major garrett. major, what's going on there? >> reporter: scott, the president has asked tim geithner to lead up his fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional republicans. that's a nod to republicans because they prefer geithner over the president's chief of staff jack lew who republicans believe is stridently opposed to big changes to health care entitlements like medicare and medicaid. white house officials insist though geithner will be in the lead, jack lew won't be far from the fiscal cliff talks. >> pelley: major, what is the white house willing to put on the negotiating table? >> scott, just about everything except social security. the president argues that social security is not driving the deficit problem. it has solvency issues of its own but the president wants those dealt with downstream, sometime next year and on a

separate track. now congressional republicans, especially those eager-- or at least willing-- to raise tax revenue want social security, medicare and medicaid as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations. if that's the price tag of a grand bargain, the white house says at least where social security is concerned it's not going to buy. scott? >> pelley: major, thanks very much. it appears the new president of egypt may be backing away from the biggest crisis there since the revolution. there have been four days of protests after president mohammed morsi seized near absolute powers saying that his decisions cannot be overturned by the courts. well, tonight we're hearing that talks between morsi and the supreme court continue with an eye toward compromise. it's a developing story and holly williams is in cairo tonight. >> reporter: in cairo today, they buried a young man who died in violent protests against egypt's first democratically elected president. after days of clashes, today there were few confrontations.

on tahrir square, the heart of the revolution which ousted long-time dictator hosni mubarak hundreds of peaceful demonstrators are staging a sit- in. their sphere that mohamed morsi has plans to become egypt's new strongman. the people who have set up camp here say they won't leave until president morsi rescinds the decrees that have give given him sweeping new powers. morsi promised to give up his expanded powers but only when a new constitution is finished and tonight the protesters are staying put. egypt hasn't had a constitution since mubarak's overthrow and its elected parliament was dissolved by the military. president morsi's allies say leftovers from the mubarak regime have been stone walling the new islamist government. your argument is that president morsi had no choice but to give himself these new powers. >> yes. it's not overruling the judicial

system or having -- making decisions that are beyond misuse or purposes. >> reporter: but other egyptians including human rights activists interpret mr. morsi's powers very differently. >> he keeps promising that this is only for the next six or seven months but there are also no guarantees that the new constitution will respect fundamental rights. >> reporter: almost two years after this country's revolution ended decades of dictatorship, egypt's young democracy hangs in the balance. >> pelley: holly williams is just above tahrir square in cairo tonight. holly, you mentioned it's been nearly two years since the revolution. what's happening with the constitution? when is it going to be written? >> well, it's being drafted by a committee. they've been working on it for several months. i spoke to one of the committee members today said they should have a final draft within days and it could be put to a referendum early next year. the problem is there have been constant complaints that too

many of the committee members are hard line islamists who want a much bigger role for religion in government and, in fact, this month two dozen more liberal members of the committee quit over that issue. the problem is that going forward, getting any kind of consensus over egypt's new constitution, is going to be extremely difficult. >> pelley: a long road to democracy. holly, thank you very much. nearby in the middle east, syria's civil war took the lives of more children. as many as ten were killed outside damascus. witnesses say a government plane attacking rebel positions dropped what appeared to be a cluster bomb on the children's playground. the assad dictatorship is out to crush a rebellion that broke out there more than a year and a half ago. human rights groups say more than 40,000 syrians have been killed. the government shuts down a peanut butter company. the cost of superstorm sandy is higher than katrina.

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the f.d.a. found salmonella in sunland's new mexico plant. we learned today that the meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroids has claimed two more lives. the steroids were produced by the new england compounding center. the meningitis has now spread to 19 states and infected 496 people. the latest deaths bring the toll to 36. now dr. jon lapook tells us some of the survivors are coming down with new infections. >> reporter: 46-year-old brenda bansale was among the first who got meningitis. she spent 15 days at a hospital in michigan. >> i freaked out. i started writing the final letter to my husbands and my sons. it was hard >> reporter: bansale is now part of a second wave of patients developing additional infections following their bout with meningitis. she has a dangerous abscess around the steroid injection site in her back. doctors believe the abscess is caused by the same fungus that's

been causing meningitis. >> i'm angry. i'm scared. i'm frustrated. >> how are you doing? >> reporter: doctors at st. joseph mercy hospital have treated 54 patients for meningitis and 81 for abscesses. neurosurgeon jeffrey thomas and his team are finding patients who are infected even though they don't have any symptoms. >> these abscesses that are near the spinal canal have the ability to erode into the area where the spinal fluid is and become meningitis which is much more serious. >> reporter: the state approved an emergency mobile m.r.i.-- a medical imaging unit-- to screen patients. the hospital has added 25 nurses st. joseph mercy is calling 600 patients urging them to be screened. david earles received an ankle injection in september and got tested today. >> hopefully this m.r.i. that i'm scheduled for today will put me in the clear. >> reporter: he didn't get the news he was hoping for.

>> that is an abscess so this is a positive case. >> this is a brand new disease. this is a fungus that is not supposed to be there and so a lot of what we're doing a little bit trial and error. >> pelley: jon, how are these abscesses created and how dangerous are they? >> reporter: scott, some of the infected steroid goes up the spinal canal to the brain and causes meningitis. but some of it stays right there at the injection site and causes an infection. what the body does is it tries to wall off the infection, that's called an abscess. the problem with an abscess is that that wall can be so thick it's tough for antibiotics to get through it. they'd like to cut it out but the abscess can be so close to important nerves you're afraid of damaging the nerves with the knife. >> pelley: jon, thanks very much. a family is swept away by powerful waves on the california coast. their story just ahead. there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%.

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and social security strong for generations to come. a city manager goes above and beyond to keep his star players. the move that may have you talking to your boss. that's next. this month secretary of state hillary clinton said the u.s. will join other countries to stop a killing frenzy in africa. elephants are being slaughtered at a record pace by gangs looking to get rich by selling their ivory tusks. our science correspondent of the nature conservancy found out that in kenya, desperate measures are being taken to save the elephants. >> this is mountain ball, a 6- ton living legend. he has evaded poachers many times before. now hunters are after him again

for his massive tasks. >> if we can very quietly get to those trees. >> we chased him for more than an hour and finally he broke cover and there was a shot. not from a bullet, but a drug- filled dart. these hunters were government veterinarians. >> this magnificent bull elephant has had a lot of interaction with poachers. in one instance alone he's been shot eight times, and the slugs are still in his body but he has survived. now conservationists and rangers are doing something dramatic. they are taking off part of his tusks in the hope it's will make him less of a target. it is a controversial move. he's less of a target for poachers and also able to defend himself against other bull elephants. the tusks will be destroyed by the government. an estimated 25,000 elephants are being killed every year by

well-armed african gangs. some have links to organized crime with much of the illegal ivory ending up in china. >> how bad is it here? >> it is the worst that it's been in the last three years. it is a steady deterioration and getting worse. >> conservationist ian craig started a trust which received some funding from the nature conservatory. his group helps protect wildlife across 3 million acres of private land. >> how big do you think the tusks are? >> i would think he's like 10 kilos a side. >> so what is the price on his head? >> about $250,000 to the gunman. >> that is more than five times what an average worker earns in a month. they use the light of the full moon to hunt and so now do the rangers. it is a deadly business. six rangers have died in fire fights with poachers this year

alone. tonight it was quiet. but 300 miles to the south, the killing continued. just a few days ago, automatic weapons fire fell this group of six elephants. ivory has been hacked out and in all probability has already left the country. as long as the demand exists, the slaughter will continue. >> is it a winnable war? >> it is not a winnable war in the long-term. we can't keep putting this level of resources into the protection of elephants forever. >> instead, craig is promoting the idea that saving elephants for tourists can be much more profitable than killing them. >> i've seen better security for themselves and money generated from tourism going into education and water projects. where the benefits are clear to communities, it is working. >> mountain bull eventually wobbled to his feet. he headed back into the bush where now he may be able to

live out his days in peace. cbs news, kenya. >> so who is buying those illegal elephant tasks? tomorrow holly williams goes undercover to track the black market in ivory. and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news, all around the world, good night. good evening. i'm allen martin. >> i'm dana king. think your state or county or city needs to cut pension costs? that may very well be the case. >> but tonight there is a word of warning from a bay area city that thinks it may have done too much pension reform. phil matier on the cost of cutting back. >> reporter: that's right. here in antioch they are having second thoughts about the health reform they helped initiate when they are staring at the financial cliff. the question is are they willing to change it? here is the story.

like a lot of california communities, antioch has had to tighten its belt in the recent years and some of the biggest cuts are to police who are down to 74 officers for a population of 104,000. >> we are definitely one of the most understaffed departments in the county, if not the lowest. >> reporter: now antioch has money to hire cops but have a new problem. it seems experienced cops are reluctant to apply to antioch because of the new peck reforms. >> they don't want to come from 3% to a 3 at 55 because it will add years to retirement. >> so tonight the city council will take up matching the pension experienced cops are getting at other cities. >> we are going to need to have every ability to make us look appealing. >> and it is not just police. in 2007 this wall was covered with the name of the antioch city employees. as you can see today,